Craig Cooper: Mission Complete, the day after: Sunday, March 12th, 2006
Our initial saturation mission for 2006 is now in the books, with all aquanauts safely on the surface, clean of any issues after their 12 hour “bends watch”, and headed home after an enjoyable team celebration and cookout last evening. I want to thank the aquanaut team of Whaley, Becker, Spence, Emborski, O’Sullivan, and Garcia for the fine job they did down below on this five day sat. Not only did they give us a great leg up on preparing for our upcoming eighteen day NASA NEEMO IX mission, but they allowed us to “shake down” and test systems since our last Aquarius dive in December. Although usually handled as a staff mission, our NURC team is at two thirds its normal level, so using US Navy divers, who are sat trained and experienced, offered us a huge opportunity to complete our objectives, and that is exactly what this veteran team accomplished. Equally as important as the workhorses below, were the topside team members made up of US Navy and NURC diving personnel. The mission greatly depended on the diving support by the team of Reimers, Daubon, Ruterbusch, Peacock, Urban, Kane, Hamilton, Buijten, Buckley, Hulsbeck, Talacek, Landucci, Letts, March, and Rutten. We were also aided by a visit from the NASA vessel R/V Liberty Star and their team of United Space Alliance divers, deploying our deep water u/w fill station, the “Kamper”, following its post hurricane season repair.
On a somber note, all of us at NURC bid a fond farewell to Joe March, as he moves on to another job, where I’m sure he’ll be the asset he was for our program. I had the pleasure of saturating with Joe on one staff and two NASA missions, and he always made my job easier due to his dedication and work ethics. Good luck Joe, you’ll be missed.
I can’t thank all these fine US Navy divers without recognizing the efforts to get us where we are today by many others throughout US Navy diving, most notably my friends and fellow aquanauts, Bob Barth, Jim Wilkins, Chris Murray, and Mark “Kamper” Helmkamp. You have all helped forge the present cooperative relationship between the US Navy and NOAA, and we thank you for your leadership and undying support.
Hoo-Yah, Deep Sea! NURCA-NURCA, Shallow sats!